Not Without a Fight
by Arren Verte
Summary: Not Without a Fight follows the Jedi Siri Tachi, created by Jude Watson, as she tracks down one of the Confederacy's top agents, while struggling with her own unnatural rebirth and forbidden emotions.
1. Prologue I and II

**Star Wars**

**Not Without a Fight**

_The pain was agonizing. That damn bounty hunter had shot her straight in the abdomen. She didn't think it would end this way, or this time, or that it would hurt quite so much. _

"_Don't leave me. I wanted to say—"_

_"Siri, I must get a medpac."_

_"For star's sake, Obi-Wan, I'm dying," she said, filled with pain. Her lover was such a worrier. But she loved him. "Do you have to interrupt me now?"_

_She saw a tear drop from his eyes. Oh, Obi-wan…_

_"You're not dying," he said, more tears coming. She had never seen him cry, and had never expected him to. He was so strong, so strong--_

_Her warming crystal. "I can't…get it for me," she said, her abdomen on fire. She was getting weaker by the second. She saw the puzzlement on his face, then the reckoning. He got it for her, and put it in her hands. Another tear dropped on her face, and slid into her mouth. The saltiness was almost sweet to her taste buds. "No…yours," she said with effort, dropping it in his hands. "Now I will never leave you."_

_"You will never leave me," Obi-Wan replied, repeating her, the way he always repeated. She tried to laugh. She reached her hand up, summoning all her strength left. "Don't worry so much," she said, giving a tiny smile, and brushed his cheek. As her eyes closed, she had only one thought. I love you, Obi-Wan…_

**Prologue**

The naked human woman squirmed before him in the bacta-filled container. She thrashed, as if in a horrific nightmare. Darth Sidious smiled. Siri Tachi had been a beautiful woman, but he had given human qualities up for the ultimate power of the dark side. The process was nearly complete. With the resurrection of her body, Siri's life essence would soon follow to join with it. This happened naturally, and only to those who had joined with the Force.

"We have an REM, sir," said the medical droid at the side of the capsule. Sidious smiled. REM meant dreams, and dreams meant a soul. Siri was alive. She was crucial to his plot, another weakening tool to cripple the Republic.

_Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan…_ The name was repeated over and over again. Siri was dizzy, and disoriented. Half-conscious, she vaguely remembered lying in a cockpit, a large blaster wound scorching on her stomach. She gave _him_ her warming crystal…and then…darkness. Now, she wasn't even sure if she was alive. She felt alive, and yet…

She was very confused, and she hated being confused. Slowly consciousness began to welcome her with open arms. The dark curtain of the unknown peeled back, and she felt truly _alive_.


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

The cloning method Darth Sidious used was even better than Kaminoan cloning, the way the clonetroopers were created. It was good, but his was better. Instead of the years it took to create a fully-grown clone, his method took months. Of course, he only had to grow the body. The consciousness was already there, in the realm of the Force. With some coaxing, he could lull the consciousness back into the body. And, of course, it only worked with Force-sensitive individuals. In fact, he was going to use that method on himself once he had died…but that was eons away, he wagered. He was also fairly sure that he was the only one who knew how to do that. Thank the Force…

His senses surged, and the Dark Lord realized that Tachi had fully come to her senses, and had become conscious. She was extending her Force-sense to find her surroundings. He hurriedly told the medical droid to administer an anesthesia.

"Sweet dreams," he said, and turned toward his comm unit.

Her eyes fluttered open, and she became fully aware of her body. She seemed be floating in some sort of liquid chamber, presumably bacta, due to its thickness. What happened? Where was she? Had the bacta saved her? Had Obi-Wan gotten her to a bacta tank? She knew bacta was miracle-working, but she didn't know it could raise the dead!

She peered through the murk, and could see a little bit of her surroundings through the transparent glass. She saw a dark room, and a distorted medical droid to the side of the cylindrical container. She thought the distortion was due to an eye infection or something, then realized it was because of the shape of the container. _"Duh." _

Siri decided to risk looking around with the Force. She stretched out with the Force with some effort; she was still weak. She felt there was a great evil in this room, and it chilled her to the bone. She probed more, and almost pinpointed the location of the evil.

With her eyes, she squinted, looking out the glass. She realized she saw some dark cloak, distorted through the glass. She saw some hood move, and the figure faced her. It started walking toward her.

Some blue liquid entered the chamber. She tried to get away from it, but she realized that she was bound at her hands and legs. She tried to shout through the mask that allowed her to breathe in the bacta, but to no avail. The blue liquid seeped into her pores, and just as the darkness drew itself in, she caught a glimpse of the face of the cloaked. Distorted as it was, it loomed in the glass. It chilled her to the bone. She knew she recognized it…but…

The darkness took her.

Siri had been lovers with the famous General Obi-Wan Kenobi, before she died. Darth Sidious knew this, and planned to take advantage of it. In his experience, love was a weakness, and hampered progress, and brought about danger. Love was a liability. And a costly one.

"Lord Sidious," said the mechanical, sinister head on the holo display. General Grievous was a cyborg, and Count Dooku, Sidious's apprentice, had trained him in the Jedi arts. Grievous had already killed over four Jedi; definitely a skilled warrior.

"I have an assignment for you," Lord Sidious said. "A Jedi, by the name of Siri Tachi will be hunting you down within the next few weeks or so. I need you to run from her, pretend to flee from her. When the moment is right, I want you to decimate her forces, and capture her. A Jedi, one I believe you know well, will be coming after her to rescue her. I want you to kill him, and then kill Tachi. Is that understood?"

"How do you know this, my Lord?"

"Do not question my knowledge. I have foreseen it."

"I understand, my Lord."

"Good. All of this will bring about our victory, General. Soon, I will rule the galaxy," Sidious said, and smiled; a rarity. If he wasn't careful, he would soon find himself becoming…sentimental.

No. Nonsense.

Soon the Republic would be brought to his knees, and his final plan, one last scheme, would come into play, and soon, he would bring about his greatest triumph.


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

Siri jolted awake. Her eyes flashed open, and she sat upright. What? She looked around, and saw that she was in a room, not a bacta capsule. The walls were stylish, homely colors, matching the colors of the carpet and such. The room made her feel at home, at peace, in the arms of tranquility.

She got up from the bed she was sitting on, and walked out into the small hallway, and found herself in a tiny kitchen, connected to a small living room. This reminded her of…

Her quarters.

At the Jedi Temple.

_"I'm home?"_

Obi-Wan was sleeping in his quarters, dreaming of peace throughout the galaxy. A dark cloud swept over his dreams suddenly, and his galaxy of peace became a hive of blazing planets and exploding courier ships.

He snapped awake. Where had that come from?

Obi-Wan decided to try some meditation. He had always hated meditation when he was still a Padawan at the temple, but now, he had learned to enjoy basking himself in the Force. As soon as he opened himself up, he felt a familiar presence. One that shouldn't be there.

Siri. But she was dead! He probed farther. There was no doubt about it. It was definitely Siri.

_"What in blazes?"_

She was dead. How was this happening? She'd never heard of something like this in all her life. It crazy; preposterous. Siri paced back and forth in her quarters. What was going on? She vaguely remembered being in a bacta tank, and a face, oh, that face…it was recognizable, and yet, evil. As soon as the memory had come to her, it was gone, just like that.

She was scared. Siri Tachi never got scared. Then an idea came to her.

Yoda. Yoda would know what was going on. She went over to wall, and put on a dark brown cloak, and put the hood up. She didn't want _anyone_ recognizing her.

She made her way to the Room of a Thousand Fountains, where Yoda liked to spend his time and meditate. As the portal opened before her, she felt brought back to the past. Her memories of this place flooded her. As she walked through, she almost tripped over Master Yoda, already standing at the door, waiting for her.

"Oh, Master Yoda, I didn't know you were there!"

"Mmm…" said the old Jedi Master.

"Master, um, we have a problem."

"Indeed, Jedi Siri. Dead, you are," said Yoda. "Noticed your presence come back to our world, did I." Siri's took a deep breath to maintain her calm. "Master, what is going on?"

"Know the answer, I do not. Come, to the Council, we will go."

"Yes, master," she said, pulling up her cowl, and following Yoda out of the large room.

"Masters, I felt a presence," Obi-Wan said. "A presence that should most certainly _not _be there," he continued. The other council members looked at him oddly. Their stares betrayed no emotion, as was their custom. The council never let anything slip, always keeping their emotions in check, so as not to offend or reassure the speaker. Obi-Wan, only recently being granted the rank of Jedi Master, still felt a little uneasy sitting on the council.

"A…presence," Mace Windu stated sharply. "And, who would this presence be?"

"Master Windu, I don't know. It doesn't make sense. I felt the presence of the Jedi Knight, Siri Tachi," Obi-Wan stated, bristling at the though. Obi-Wan's thoughts wandered to the last moment he had with her, when she was dying in the cockpit of a bounty hunter's ship. She had given him her warming stone, and he still carried it with him always.

"Obi-Wan, that is absurd. Siri Tachi has been dead for almost a year." said Mace Windu, his tone very critical. Obi-Wan sensed the disapproval of the other masters at him. Just then, Master Yoda, and a hooded Jedi Knight walked into the chambers. Obi-Wan's senses surged. The Jedi Knight was Siri. However, none of the other masters seemed to have noticed.

"Friends, a situation, we have," Yoda started. At that, the Jedi removed her hood. There stood Siri, with shoulder length blonde hair, and blazing blue eyes. The Council Members gasped.

"Master Yoda, what is this!" exclaimed Mace, rising to his feet. Master Yoda shook his head. "Know, I do not, but presumptions, I have."

"And these would be…" This from Obi-Wan. "A clone, I believe she is. Managed to bring this Siri back to life, using the Force to bring her spirit back from it's Netherworld, someone has."

"Is that possible?"

"Only suspicions, I have, but yes, legends there have been."

"Master Yoda, what exactly do you suggest we do?" Mace Windu said. Siri stepped in. "I was thinking that I would continue being a Jedi. I clearly am capable of being the Jedi I was. I remember everything, and I feel exactly the same," she said matter-of-factly. Obi-Wan looked keenly at her. She looked exactly like Siri, and sounded like her.

"Siri, we will decide what your fate is to be," said Mace, his face very stern.

Siri's eyes flared. The brilliant bright blue they had been suddenly went to a deep navy. Obi-Wan vaguely remembered that Siri had had faulty membranes behind her eyes. When her emotions changed, the electricity from the emotions-processors of her brain flew toward her eyes, causing the changes in color of her iris.

"Master Windu, believe I do, that Siri is right. Here she is, and nothing about it we can do. To deny her the right to be a Jedi, unfair would be. However, training she needs to make sure she is up to it."

Obi-Wan saw Siri suppress a cry. He knew she was thinking that she did not need training.

"I elect Master Kenobi to help condition Jedi Tachi," said the Cerean, Ki-Adi-Mundi. "I second it," said Adi Gallia, a Corellian Jedi, the daughter of two ambassadors. "I," continued Yaddle, a Jedi Master of the same species as Yoda.

"I don't really think that that would be wise…" Obi-Wan said, his voice trailing off, remembering his history with Siri. He had loved her, and the thought of a renewed romance was tempting. Then he remembered their promise to each other, made on the mission that Siri had died. _Best friends,_ he had said, and she had agreed. They were best friends from that point on. But then, when she was dying, he could tell what she was thinking. She was thinking of love, her love for him. So what was it? Lovers, or best friends?

Women so confused Obi-Wan. He shook his head in confusion.

"I believe that you would be a good conditioner. You did a wonderful job with keeping Knight Skywalker in line, and he has turned out to be a great Jedi. I think you could train with Siri for a few weeks," said Ki-Adi, and Mace nodded. "It's settled then," he said, and got up and walked out of the chambers. The other masters filed out after him. Obi-Wan just sat there, dumbfounded. He looked up, and saw Siri staring at him.

"It's settled then," said Mace. Finally. About time. It took everything she'd had to just keep from looking at Obi-Wan. She'd noticed that he was also avoiding her eyes. When everyone had left, she finally dared to look at him. He was basically unchanged, except for a few scars, and a different hairstyle. The long, almost-shoulder length hair was gone, replaced with a combed-to-the-side-look. An improvement, in her eyes.

"Are you ready to start?" she asked, smiling. He looked up, and she saw confusion in his eyes. She cocked her head to the side. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he replied. "Let's go."


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

The lightsaber whizzed past her ear as she dodged to the side. She couldn't see a thing through the blindfold, and had to rely on the Force to tell her where Obi-Wan's attacks were coming from. She'd forgotten how good of a fighter he was. He'd been improving on his offensive strikes. A new form maybe? Form V probably, which was mostly offensive, in contrast to his normal defensive Form III.

Siri countered with a Form VI maneuver, ducking and sweeping low, hoping to hit him in the abdomen. He blocked low, and he shoved her with his shoulder. She did a somersault over top of him, and swung high. This Obi-Wan blocked easily.

She pushed him through the Force, and sent him sprawling. She did a Force-aided leap, landing almost next to him, and brought her lightsaber down. He didn't have time to react to hit. It hit him square in the neck.

He winced as the low-intensity lightsaber sizzled on his skin. _"Ow," _he thought, and went to his corner, sweeping off his blindfold as he went. "No more blindfolds," he told Siri. She took it off with obvious relief. She always hated that test.

"Obi-Wan, I have a question."

"All right. Shoot," he replied, completely taken aback. "What do you think about _us_?" she said. Obi-Wan reeled as to how to respond. He tried his best.

"Siri, you told me once that we would be best friends," he replied matter-of-factly. "I intend to keep it that way." He nodded, as if to prove he wasn't lying, and smiled.

"Then why am I sensing confusion bleeding from you like a wounded bantha? You obviously don't want to be with me." She said, and leapt to attack him. He parried, and gritted his teeth. She was putting him on the defensive, and pushing him into a corner. He leapt over her. "That's not the way best friends act," she said.

Her lightsaber was suddenly blazing towards him. He hit it down to the ground with his lightsaber. "Confusion bleeding off me?" he said, repeating what she said like he always had. "Siri, I don't want to talk about this now."

"Really? Why not!" With that, she kicked him square in the chest, and he flipped backwards to hold the momentum of the kick. "Siri, this is not the time, nor the place. Can we just concentrate on our sparring?"

"No, I can multitask!" Stab. Parry, slash. Block.

"Well, so can I, but I don't want to talk about this." With that, he deactivated his lightsaber. Siri moved in for the "kill" but Obi-Wan Force-pushed her away, sending her flying. "That's enough training for today, Siri," he said, and left.

Siri climbed into the shower, and turned it on very hot. She looked down at herself, noting that she was almost exactly the same as she used to be, aside from the lack of a few scars. Her saber skills were the same as always; at least, that's what she thought. Would she have bested Obi-Wan faster in her old body?  
What if she wasn't the same, like she thought?

She searched frantically through her mind, trying to remember exactly what it was like to be Siri Tachi. With her fingers running shampoo through her sweaty hair, she became more confused than ever. She didn't remember anything about Obi-Wan and her saying they'd be best friends. All she remembered was the love, and the time when they weren't even friends!

_I love you, Obi-Wan…_

Why couldn't she remember! She searched even more frantically, all the while, washing her lithe-yet-muscular body. She looked as feminine and attractive to men as ever (she'd noticed some Padawans looking at her as she walked through the halls), but inwardly, she wasn't as confident. What was going on?

She searched deeper, to her innermost mind, where neurons were swirling and blobbing with thought. She found herself unable to go into it, as all Jedi would have been able to do, when inwardly looking. It felt blocked, like a wall separating her from what she wanted. _"What is this?"_

She decided to break it. Her Force-self reared up, and blew through the wall. She instantly felt woozy. She collapsed to her knees in the shower. Her eyes went white, and she fainted to the floor of the shower, soap running from her body.

Siri awoke in the shower, the water still running. Her skin was red from the heat of the shower. "What happened?" she said aloud, knowing no one would hear her. She slowly got out of the shower, and carefully dried herself off, lest she agitate her skin more. She winced when she accidentally scraped her skin against the counter. She put on a sleep robe, and curled up in her bed.

She dreamed of nothing but lightsaber duels, and ways to improve her Form. The uncertainty she carried was there, but she pushed it down, deep down, where it wouldn't bother her in sleep. Let her deal with it in the morning.

The next few days were awkward for Obi-Wan and Siri. Though they saw each other, and trained together, conversation rarely got past "Hello," and "Good move." The tension had eased slightly, but not quite enough where they could be somewhat of friends. Obi-Wan longed for the days when they could be close again.

As they sparred, Obi-Wan began to feel a sentiment seep into his heart. Here was the woman he used to love, in clone form, wanting a connection with him again. As they sparred, he realized he _missed _her. He was missing the opportunity of a lifetime. A second chance at a relationship with Siri.

A new one. A closer one. Best friends.

He blocked another blow to his ankles, and jabbed toward her waist. She sidestepped, and hit him across the face, sending him sprawling. "Siri, can we end this?"

"What, afraid to lose?"

"No, I mean this…hostility. You were right. I'm sorry, I was afraid. Truthfully, Siri, I didn't know what to expect."

Siri just stared blankly at him. He stared into her eyes, and saw some tension ease. Suddenly, she lunged at him, hitting him in the neck with her low-power lightsaber. "I win," she said. "Now let's go get something to eat," she said, helping him to his feet. She threw her training saber on the rack, and started walking out of the room.

Obi-Wan ordered a muja fruit drink. Siri ordered a bluish drink, that Obi-Wan was sure was alcoholic. He shook his head and laughed.

"So best friends?" she asked earnestly. He nodded. "Best friends, nothing more."

"You're sure?"

"Yes."

"Yes?"

"Yes," he said, laughing. He took a drink, and tasted something rather nasty. He spit it out, all over the bartender. The burly bartender looked up, disgusted, and turned his back on Obi-Wan. All the while, Siri was sitting there, cracking up.

"You put salt in my drink."

"It's so much better that way, isn't it?" she said, using the Force pick up the salt dispenser, and shaking it over his head. He laughed, and turned toward the bartender. "Sorry about that, here's another ten credits," he said, snickering. Very uncharacteristic. But then, he hadn't had Siri around for a while.

"So what you been doing while I was gone?" she asked, as if her coming back from the dead was absolutely nothing. "The outer rim sieges," he said plainly. "The war is going in our favor, but we are suffering heavy losses. 1.2 million clones may seem like a lot, but the Confederacy's droid army dwarves our own. Thankfully, droids don't really think."

"Yeah," she said, yawning. "Wow, this alcohol is stronger than usual." Obi-Wan laughed.

"In these past few days, what have you felt?" he asked, breaking the humorous moment. She looked serious for a moment. "Confused, and…outraged. Who would dare to clone me, and bring me back? It's so confusing!

"Somehow, I find bits of my memory missing. Not enough to be annoying, or too noticeable. But enough to cause me discomfort. And it's all about one thing. Like…someone just deleted anything about that subject."

"Siri, what subject?" he asked. She looked at him with fear-filled eyes. "I don't remember!" she said.

Obi-Wan's fingers were intertwined with Siri's in her quarters. Their eyes were closed, both searching through her mind, looking for abnormalities. Secretly, Obi-Wan liked the fact that they were holding hands, but he wouldn't let that distract him, and certainly would never voice it aloud.

His mind plunged straight into her, looking for barriers to his probe. Almost everything let him straight through. He started to pick up speed, processing information faster than any normal human could.

Suddenly, he hit a wall. His mind ached when he did so, as if he had actually hit one. _"What is this?" _he thought.

_"I don't know," _he heard a voice say in his head. Siri?

_"Yup."_

_"Ah."_

Together, they tried to breach the wall, hitting it with the Force. It wouldn't budge. Not a single bit. He mentally sighed, and started to withdraw. But as he was withdrawing, he caught a memory.

_I love you, Obi-Wan._

_"What is _that_?"_ he asked Siri through the Force.

"Nothing, never mind," she said out loud.

"No, I want to know."

"Obi-Wan, let's forget it," she said, her beautiful blue eyes pleading, tears filling them up. He looked into her eyes, and saw what he'd always known. She still loved him. Even death couldn't stop that.

Did he feel the same?

"Siri, I'm sorry that I couldn't help you," he said, and started for the door. "That's all right," she replied. "I have to figure this out myself."

"A command, you've been given, Jedi Siri. Ready, the Council thinks you are. Much progress, have you made," Yoda stated, his heavily lidded eyes blinking at her. She nodded. "Where am I to be going?" she asked, and she saw disapproval flash through his eyes. By asking that, he'd interpreted it as impatience. He'd get to it in his own time.

"To the Outer Rim, we are sending. Help with the sieges, you will. Ten ships, you are being given."

"Yes, Master Yoda."

"Go, pack up your things, you must." Siri nodded, and bowed. She would be gone for a while. Best to leave before Obi-Wan saw her and inquired some more. That man had such a knack for interference. Why'd she ever let him help her? She didn't need his help. She didn't need anyone help. Who was he to barge in—

She stopped herself. That we her ego talking, and there was no room for it in a Jedi. But still, her overconfidence was part of her. It had always been her weakness.

She made her way to her room, and began to pack her tunics. A gray one, a tan one, a brown one…all different shades of the same material and look. She packed pants, same material, same look. The Jedi needed a new style; she'd always thought that. Some color, not the boring earth tones, and different kinds of tunics and stuff. Not anything too flashy, but, still, difference.

She put in her gear, and two extra robes, a dark brown, and a lighter brown. She even brought supplies to build another lightsaber if need be. Siri hated depending on anyone for anything, even when the supplies were at her disposal, for her use.

She slung her bag over her shoulder, and started out the door. As she walked into the hallway, she heard a voice from behind her.

"No goodbye for your best friend?"

"Obi-Wan, I'm in a hurry," she said, exasperatedly. "So am I. I'm leaving too."

"You are?" she asked, fearing the worst. What if he'd been assigned on the same mission? That would be awful. She'd have to answer to him. His rank was far superior to hers.

"I'm on a mission to the Outer Rim. I'm taking over operations in the Gyndine Sector. A lot of Confederate activity over there."

"Ah," she said, secretly relieved that she was nowhere near he. "Well, good luck with that."

"Wait, Siri."

She turned around and saw him extend his hand. She took it, and they shook firmly. "Goodbye, Master Kenobi."

"Goodbye, Jedi Tachi."


	5. Chapter Four

**Three Months Later**

**Chapter Four**

Green and red flashes filled the space outside of the Republic Attack Cruiser. Its eight turbolasers were pumping out green gouts of fire at three shots a second. But maybe it wasn't enough. General Siri Tachi gripped her center chair harder than a starving person hanging onto his first bite of food in years. "Hard to port!" she yelled at the clone pilots and Republic officers controlling the ship, as a steady stream of fire hit that portion of the ship. The great 1,137 meter long hulk lurched toward the left, and fired upon the Trade Federation cruiser. The weakened cylindrical ship blew apart under the focused fire of the great wedge battleship.

There was an enormous explosion on the right side of the ship, and it started to spin out of control.

The crew was thrown across the bridge. "Report!" called Siri, just as she was lifted out of her chair by loss of gravity. "Gravity's offline, we're losing life support, and we're venting atmosphere," came the report from a nervous ensign.

"Gravity's offline? Wow, I would never have guessed that…" came the retort from the spunky general. She floated there, thinking. She was just about to give up, when her comlink beeped.

General Obi-Wan Kenobi's faced appeared in holographic form. "Hello, Siri," he said softly.

"Obi-Wan, I'm kind of busy right now…"

"Okay, okay. I was just wondering how you were doing."

"Great, Obi-Wan. Perfect, in fact," she lied, just as another huge explosion rocked the ship. "What was that?" he asked, worried. _"Oh, save it,"_ she thought. How many times had Obi-Wan came to save her hide? How many times had he interfered with her strategies? How many times had those beautiful blue-green eyes entered her mind every time she was planning her next move? Those eyes…

There was something about Obi-Wan and interfering with things. Especially her thoughts.

"Nothing," she lied again.

"Siri, I'm heading to your position. We'll reenter normal space in about five minutes? Can you hold out that long?"

"I _don't_ _need_ _your_ _help_, Mr. Hero."

"See you in five minutes," he said quickly, and killed the transmission. She threw her hands up in defeat. She absolutely hated it when Obi came to help her out. Pride was always an issue for her. "Get gravity going again," she barked to the bridge crew, "and evacuate and close off the breached deck."

The order was carried out with uncanny speed and skill. She flopped into her chair.

Another series of small explosions rocked the ship, followed by a burst of sparks from the weapons console. "We've lost three turbolasers, ma'am!" yelled that same officer. She glared at him for his panicky tone of voice. She should have opted for the fully clone bridge crew. She shook her head, and bit her lip. She chewed it in apprehension until an idea came.

"The SPHA-T's, the ones we have in stock; are they functional?" she asked a nearby clone pilot.

"To my knowledge, yes."

"Good, get them up and running. Get them in the docking bays, ASAP, sergeant," she snapped off quickly, and sent the clone running towards the turbolift. She looked at the console to her side, showing a holographic view of the battle, via numerous camera droids deployed at the start of the battle. Her original ten ships had been reduced to six-no, five. There were still seven Trade Federation cruisers out there. Starfighters buzzed around on the holographic display like Tatooinian gnats. She noticed the four semi-wedge-shaped starfighters of the Jedi out there, flying in perfect tandem, blowing apart vulture droids and tri-fighters.

"The artilleries are ready, ma'am," came a voice over the comm. "Good," she said. She turned to her bridge crew. "Get us into position so that we are facing the nearest cruiser," she said, and turned back to her comlink. "Have them charge up. Then, when I give the word, have them fire."

"Ma'am?"

"Just do it, sergeant."

"Aye, ma'am."

Siri looked out the viewscreen. The cruiser loomed in the windows of the Republic attack ship. "Fire!" she shouted at the crew and the artillery. The five remaining turbolasers, the one remaining dual turbolaser, the thirty-six remaining laser cannons, the two remaining torpedo launchers, and the six artillery tanks in the docking bays fired upon the cruiser. The laser beams from the artillery tanks went through the docking bay shield. The Federation ship's shields held, then crumpled. The bolts of energy and the shells of explosives blew into the cruiser, carving huge gaps in the hull. The ship vented bodies and droids, as well as atmosphere and parts. The Trade cruiser spun out of control, allowing the gunners a clear shot at the reactor. A shot scored its mark, and with a flash of light, the ship disintegrated into space dust and scrap metal.

The unprofessional ensign on the bridge gave an uncalled-for "yahoo!"

Siri shot him a death-glare. He shrunk away to his station. "Tell the other ships to follow suit, sergeant," she said into her comlink. "Aye, ma'am," came the reply.

Due to the skill of clone commanders, in fewer than thirty seconds, artillery SPHA-T's were soon firing out of the forward docking bays of the remaining five ships.

Siri looked at the holo-display on her left. They number of reds, Separatist ships, was steadily decreasing. She laughed, and a few of the Republic officers looked at her. She shot them a look that said "get back to work", and thought, _"I didn't need Obi-Wan's help," _just as a fleet appeared on her holo-display. They were red.

There was no way she could them all.

Ten more ships appeared on her display. They were blue. _"Obi-Wan!" _She felt his presence invade her senses like a tsunami. He had always had a strong Force presence. The Republic ships began pounding the Separatists. Siri ordered her remaining five ships to regroup with General Kenobi's fleet. Starfighters choked the space, there were so many. Explosions and flash-frozen bodies surrounded the capital ships. "Keep firing," she said. She tried to flush out the overconfidence that swelled through her. She took three calming breaths, and gave herself away to the Force. Siri felt its calming presence flow through her, pushing out the overconfidence that had so easily come to her.

"Are we in position?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good, now—" Siri started, just as an explosion, bigger than any previous ones rocked the ship to its core. There was a load groaning noise, a scraping sound, and snap. The lights on the bridge went out, and were replaced by the blue emergency lights. "Report!"

"We've been cut in half ma'am! Venting atmosphere and personnel! We've blown apart!" said the ensign. She cursed. "Get to the escape pods, everyone. Sound the alarm. Abandon ship!" she yelled, and waited until everyone scurried out of the bridge. She gripped her chair, spun, and went to the turbolift.

The escape pod was cramped. Worse, she had been shoved in it with the panicky ensign and a clonetrooper in full armor. "We're gonna die, we're gonna die, we're gonna die!" the ensign was screaming, and his eyes were darting around the pod. "Get yourself a spine, ensign, or so help me, I'll shoot you myself," Siri snapped, and took a gun from the trooper. "Don't think I won't."

"I believe you, ma'am. Sorry, ma'am."

She rolled her eyes. Obi-Wan better make the rescue a quick one.

The clone troopers were so orderly, they even stepped out of their escape pods single file, and lined up. The non-clone officers were less orderly. Some even stepped out shaking and blubbering like children. Siri promised herself to either get herself a new crew, or train them with the brutality of a hutt.

Siri stepped up to the robed figure of Obi-Wan Kenobi. "Permission to come aboard, sir?" she asked politely. "Permission granted, General."

"Good," she said, and laughed. She flashed a smile at him, and he smiled back, he was just about to turn around and give an order to a clone trooper, and she caught him in an embrace.

"Well, it's nice to see you too!" he said, and laughed. They smiled. "I'm glad you're all right. I had to do that, ya' know? They said you were dead!" Siri exclaimed. Her smile spread wider. Then she hit Obi-Wan across the chin, hard. He blinked twice, and fell down. The clone troopers went to check him; maybe arrest her if need be.

"That's for getting in the way," she said, ever indignant.

General Obi-Wan Kenobi was rubbing his chin in his quarters. That one hurt. Garen Muln, Reeft, and even Anakin would never let him hear the end of _that_ one. He rolled his eyes, and stroked his beard. Sometimes he thought her clone was feistier than her original self, but then, she was the same person, just…newer body. Thank the Force she looked the same.

Just then, Siri walked through the door in a stunning navy blue shimmersilk dress. Obi-Wan's eyes widened. Siri usually had that affect on people when wearing form-fitting clothing. "Am I overdressed?" she asked, smiling smugly. "N-n-no!" Obi-Wan shouted, and motioned for her to sit. Siri laughed. "Oh please, Obi-Wan, it's not like this is a date. I just wanted to make you uneasy," she said in a matter-of-fact way. "I'm glad to see I still have that affect on men." She laughed again.

Obi-Wan just gulped.

"So, General, why am I eating dinner in your cabin?"

"I need to talk to you."

"Whoa, like that wasn't obvious. Of course. But what about, Kenobi?"

"The Council has a mission for you."

"Well, another point for General Obvious. Again, I knew you didn't ask me to come to your cabin so you could woo me and make love to me all night long. Really Obi-Wan, stop being coy; it doesn't suit you."

Obi-Wan bristled at the thought.

"All right, the Council wants you to track down General Grievous, and all of his associates." Obi-Wan said flatly. Siri laughed. "Now that wasn't that hard was it? Now, why were you being so coy?"

"Siri, this is a dangerous mission."

"Psh, oh please. Like any of these other ones weren't."

"Siri, this is General Grievous."

"And I'm Siri Tachi. I'll beat him just the same as the others."

"Siri! You could die! That cyborg has beaten every single Jedi we've thrown at him! He's Dooku's best general! Rumors have it that he was trained by Count Dooku."

"Obi-Wan, I think you're overreacting, and I thought you didn't listen to rumors," Siri said, indignant, as always. "Siri…" Obi-Wan said, but his voice trailed off. Maybe he was worried about her. That'd be so sweet, if it didn't mean he doubted she could take on the mission.

"If you think I'm not up to it, just say it. You doubt my abilities."

"No, Siri, that's not it…"

"Then what _is _it, Obi-Wan! You've interfered a hell of a lot. You know what! I accept! I'm gonna show you and the Council I can do this," she said, and stomped toward the door.

"Siri, wait!"

She spun on her heel. "What is it, _Kenobi_?" she said through clenched teeth. He sighed. "Be careful. We've given you a new fleet of fifteen cruisers, and twenty thousand troopers. Also, we've given you an ARC trooper, and three commandos."

"Are you quite done?"

"Yes, go ahead."

"Good. I'll see you around, Obi," Siri uttered, grabbed the datapad with the information on it, and stormed out. Obi-Wan looked despairingly at the closed door. He only hoped that she wouldn't go and be too overconfident and kill herself in the process. He sighed, got up, and got to work signing more data sheets.


	6. Chapter Five

**Chapter Five**

Siri yelled curses as she stomped down the hall. Through her ranting, she attracted the stares of many ship officers. She made her way to the training hall, where all of her crew was. She made the announcement that she was given a new command, and her crew would be merged with General Kenobi's fleet. Some were dismayed, and still others were just as happy. She had been a hard commander, and just a tad unlucky.

After her training hall visit, she made her way to the hangar, and grabbed a red decorated Eta-2 Jedi interceptor. She consulted her datapad, plugged the coordinates of her fleet into the onboard R2 unit, and sat back as the droid got a hyperspace ring attached to the ship, and jumped to hyperspace.

It was just then she realized that she was still dressed up. She had forgotten to get her effects. Needless to say, the cockpit was filled with curses the entire trip.

"Captain on deck," said the deck officer as she got out of her starfighter, still swearing. All the soldiers snapped to attention. She couldn't see his face, but she could sense that he was wondering why she was wearing a dress, earrings, and a jade necklace. She rolled her eyes, and walked up to the officer. "Where are my quarters?"

"The top of Tower A, ma'am."

"Is that wise?"

"I'm don't believe so, ma'am."

"Have my quarters moved with the rest of the crew quarters. Just get me one a little bit larger. Turn that room into a storage for something useless."

"You mean to stay by the barracks, ma'am?" responded the soldier. She nodded, and said, "And lieutenant, you _may_ call me sir. I don't mind. No need for formalities here."

"Yes ma—sir," came the reply, and he ran off to carry out her order. She sighed, and went to inspect the bridge.

She was just about to get into the turbolift below the bridge, when she caught a clonetrooper in red decaled armor, followed three troopers in decaled armor of green, orange, and blue. The only problem was that the red's helmet was off, and was slacking; most unlike clone troopers.

"Is there a problem, gentleman?" she asked politely.

"No ma'am, no problem."

"Then why are you violating dress code? You were never given an "at ease" order," she snapped. Leaning forward, so that he was just inches from her nose, the violator said, "Ma'am, I don't know who you are, but I don't take orders from someone out of uniform," referring to her shimmersilk dress. She had a mind to suspend him and his smart mouth right then and there. These must be the commandos and the ARC trooper. No regular trooper would have replied in this kind of way, _ever_. The ARC troopers were a special weapon in the Republic arsenal. Though they looked the same and had the same build as normal troopers, and were given the same growth inducers, their minds were not tampered with. They were not completely obedient; not following every single order to the exact word. They had minds of their own, and were independent. This made them ideal for special missions. Commandos also developed interesting personality quarks.

"Very well then," she said through clenched teeth, and got into the turbolift.

The bridge was neat and clean. Almost exactly identical to the one on her other ship, the bridge on this ship, the _Iron Hammer_ possessed the same indents in the floor for crew operations. Her new chair looked a little more comfortable, and everything on the bridge was top of the line. She almost whistled.

Then she noticed that she was _still _attracting stares. "What are you all looking at? Get back to work!" she yelled. She rolled her eyes, and went to go find her quarters.

When she got to her quarters, she was surprised to find that everything that she needed was already provided. She had four sets of uniforms, a set of Jedi robes, even a formal dining outfit. There was even a set of clone armor, customized for her! These clones never ceased to amaze her. And the room size! She'd said a little larger, not gargantuan! The quarters had a bedroom, small kitchen, a full bathroom, and a small dining/living area! _"Wow…" _she thought. The first thing she did was go to the bathroom, strip down, and take a shower. Her lithe body was still as hard and muscular as ever. She had feared that she had grown pudgy due to her sitting in a captain's chair for a while. She was thankful that she was wrong.

After the refreshing shower, she dried, and quickly donned her Jedi robes. It was then she realized that she had not eaten for twenty-four hours. She hadn't even touched her food when she had been in Obi-Wan's cabin. So, she made herself a cup of caf, and looked around the cupboards for something to eat. There was some nice, dried out ration paste. She fixed it up, took the bowl into her bedroom, and turned on the holo. As she ate her tasteless porridge, she watched events unfold before on the holo-net news. Reports about victory and defeat across countless fronts of Republic battles flashed across the screen. She even heard about her own recent battle.

"And now, in other news," said the blonde human female reporter, "are the Jedi betraying what they believe in? We have a live coverage from the Republic attack cruiser _Beacon of Light _in the Alderaan system."

_Beacon of Light_. That was Obi-Wan's ship! The holo flashed to a Bith reporter in a corridor inside the ship.

"Last night, a Jedi Knight was seen running through _these_ doors," said the reporter, motioning to Obi-Wan's quarters. "Here's a video clip of the situation," he said, and the holo flashed again. And there, on the holo, was Siri Tachi, running out of Obi-Wan's quarters in her formal attire. Her mouth dropped.

"She's dressed up, as you can see. We know this is a Jedi Knight, but we are not allowed to disclose whom. Seeing that she's dressed up, and seeing the way she is storming out into the corridor, we can gather that something went wrong on some sort of…date. Why would there be a date, if the Jedi do not fall in love? Now, this may just be a big shot in the dark, but it is still unnerving. If they are willing to drop some principles of theirs, why not others?" stated the Bith. "Back to you, Lenayla."

Siri just put her bowl down, and dropped back on her bed.

"No, Master Yoda, I was most certainly _not _on a date with Obi-Wan. Master, he invited me to dinner to talk about your orders for me. I thought it would be funny if I dressed up. I'm sorry if it disgraced the order."

"Disgraced, the order was not. Hurt, your pride was. A talk, with the press stations I will have," said Yoda in his weird way of talking. He was almost laughing at the situation. Siri's pride _was_ hurt. The thought of Obi-Wan and her…still brought butterflies to her stomach. She thought back to the time, when they had been stuck together on a dying starship, when they had confessed their secret love for one another. Of course, that was a long time ago, and they'd made the mistake of completely ignoring their feelings. Only when she was dying had they really been open about it. She had died, but now she was back, and confusion about her relationship with Obi-Wan was still wreaking havoc with her thinking. She mentally rolled her eyes. The thought that her and Obi-Wan would ever be together was ridiculous, but still exhilarating. She didn't know how he felt about her, mainly because she was a clone, and even she wasn't sure of her feelings now. Thank the Force she would never have to find out.

"Get some rest, you must, Siri," Yoda stated plainly.

"Yes, Master."

"Discouraged, you should not be. Take this situation lightly, you must. Humorous even, it is," Yoda continued, and Siri grudgingly agreed. It was kind of funny. It was just another one of those weird coincidences that happened during life. You needed to cherish them, no matter how embarrassing. Still…she'd never live it down.

Thankfully, the clonetroopers did not know how to joke. They also did not watch the news. So, her command was not undermined, as it would have been with a normal crew.

"Where was the last report of Grievous?"

"Melida/Daan, sir."

"Ah. Set a course for Melida/Daan, best possible speed. Tell the others to form up."

"Aye."

Much of the voyage was uneventful. A small plate came loose on one of her ships, but nothing big. It was when they got to Melida/Daan, when the real trouble started.

Melida/Daan had been in a civil war that had lasted for hundreds of years. The two warring tribes, the Melida and the Daan couldn't even agree on a name for their planet. So the Republic had named it Melida/Daan. The latter years of the war were just revenge fighting. Near the end of the war, no one even remembered what the original cause of the war was. When the Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi had come in to rescue the Jedi Tahl, who had tried to solve the conflict, from the Melida, they ended up getting involved. They met another faction of the planet, the Young. The Young were the youth of the planet who were sick of the fighting. Obi-Wan grew attached to the Young. When the time came to leave, Obi-Wan was faced with a choice. Leave, and be a Jedi, or stay, and leave the Order. He chose to leave the Order. The Young were caught up in a war with the Elders, or the united forces of the Melida and Daan against their children. With the aid of Obi-Wan, the Young won the war, and set up a government. But soon, the Young began fighting with themselves. Obi-Wan was an outcast, and he sent for aid from Qui-Gon, his former master, and the conflict was soon resolved. Ever since then, Melida/Daan had been very loyal to the Republic.

Until now, apparently.

Melida/Daan had two shipyards in orbit, both of which were pumping out ships. Confederate ships. Siri stared in horror at the two capital ships under construction in the shipyards. Melida/Daan had always been peaceful, and now this?

"Prepare to engage the enemy. Order the others to prepare as well," she said determinedly. There were two other ships in orbit, as well as a squadron of Trade Federation vulture droids. Her squadron would dispatch of them quickly. But how many more forces were on the ground? Well, best to just take it one step at a time. The squad of vulture droids were already on their way towards them, and the ARC-170's and V-19 Torrent's were already launching out of the twin docking bays of her ship. It'd be over in no time.

She ordered the _Hurricane_, the _Fast Striker_, and the _Domino Effect_ to intercept the two small Separatist frigates. She ordered three other ships to take out the construction going on in the shipyards. She told them to try to not damage the frame itself. Siri knew the ordered would be carried out with efficiency and speed. Her other nine ships would start an orbit around Melida/Daan.

"Prepare a troop lander. I want one hundred clonetroopers, and the commandos and the ARC with me when I make my landing. Make sure that the other landers are ready to land at a moments notice. I don't want to have to have a losing battle on my hands once I land. Oh, and make a note in the log saying I'm calling the commandos and the ARC the Special Operations team, okay?" she said.

"Yes, ma'am."


	7. Chapter Six

**Chapter Six**

"Ma'am, we've almost broken the atmosphere," said the ARC trooper in charge. She nodded in acknowledgement. She was in her full body armor, and it looked almost exactly like any clonetrooper. The only difference was it was modified so that she could move freely, and she was wearing her Jedi cloak over it.

"Sir, we've spotted a large platoon of Confederate troops," came a report from the navigator of the landing craft.

"Well, then, we'd better not keep them waiting. Alter course to intercept the troops."

"Yes, ma'am."

It took a minute or two for them to get in position over the super battle droids. They were a five kilometers up, so the droids did not even notice the large landing craft overtop of them. The hatch in the back swung open. "All right everyone! This is it!" Siri yelled over the sound of the roaring wind. She gave a thumbs-up, and jumped out of the back of the craft.

As she was plummeting down, she looked up and saw that the clones had already jumped. They wouldn't start their small repulsorlifts in their packs until they were lower down. Siri, however, did not _have_ a repulsorlift. But she wasn't worried.

Her sharpshooters were already firing their overly large rifles, which were capable of hitting a target over three kilometers away. She picked her macrobinoculars from her utility belt, and saw that her sharpshooters were felling the droids, and the droids were shooting back. Wasted shots. Those built-in blasters had barely any range.

The clones had started turning on their repulsorlifts. She could tell by the quiet whine that the machines made. Siri drew on the Force and closed her eyes. She felt it around her, and in everything. She would use it. She drew its sweet, golden warmth into her body. She felt the Force flowing through her. Her temperature dropped, and her heartbeat dropped. She pushed with the Force; pushed on the ground. Her descent slowed. Her eyes still closed, she smiled, satisfied. She heard all her clones firing now, the _phwa! phwa! _ of the guns ringing in here ears. She saw the blue plasma pellets make their way through many droids. She heard some of her clones cry out in surprise, and their guns fell silent.

The ground loomed ahead of her. _"Five…four…three…two…"_ she thought. One. Her feet hit the ground, her violet lightsaber ignited, and she jumped five meters into the air all in one move. She landed right in the middle of the small army. Her lightsaber was a blur as she deflected lasers and cut droids clean in half. Siri's troops had landed too, and were quickly dispatching the droids. Within five minutes, it was over.

Her lightsaber blade went down with _snap! hiss! _as she deactivated it. "Good men," she said. "Set up a camp here. I don't want any advances, except for scouting parties, is that clear?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Good," Siri said as she activated her comlink. "Commander, send down supplies for a prefab base. Also, send down five disguise packs. The Spec Ops troops and I are going on a little trip."

"Aye ma'am," the clonetrooper commander said with the usual compliance.

It took two minutes for the shipments of supplies to get down to them. When it did, the clonetroopers unloaded with speed. All the supplies were out of the ships in five minutes. The clonetroopers set to work immediately, building prefabricated shelters and a command center, setting up gun turrets. There were even light durasteel walls!

Siri, however, went to work on the disguises. Siri was sure that she would go unnoticed, seeing how she wasn't the most famous general in the Republic. She decided to use a disguise anyways. The commandos, though, would definitely need disguises. They looked exactly alike, scars aside. The Spec Ops donned their own disguises, using wigs, hair dye, skin coloring, and face shaper so that they did not look the same. The holo-disguises would be better to accurately disguise oneself, but they might be noticed by scanners. Also, there was nothing to disguise their height. They were all 1.83 meters. Hopefully, no one would notice.

Siri used hair dye and colored contacts with built-in settings (ultra-violet, infrared, x-ray, etc.) to disguise herself. They all donned civilian clothing. Siri concealed her lightsaber in her gray civilian robe. The clones hid small blasters under their clothing.

With their disguises on, they headed for the nearest town, completely unsure of what they would find.

"The Republic has stolen from us for years!" yelled a Melida/Daan native, standing on a platform, surrounded by a large crowd. "I, for one, am glad of our separation from the Republic of Tyranny. Chancellor Palpatine is a monster of a _dictator _and should be treated as such! Melida/Daan forever!"

The crowd cheered. Siri watched in horror at the ferocity of the man. You'd think that the Republic had hurt him personally. He was still talking.

"The Republic has attacked us, this very day, destroying ships, and the progress of shipyards!"

The crowd booed.

"Are we to be dictated and controlled by these…these war mongers?"

The crowd "no'd."

"Then down with the Pro-Republic parties. This faction is against the Melida/Daan cause, and should be treated like any other criminal!" the man shouted with intensity, and stepped off the platform. Siri shook her head. The ARC troopers had gone off in separate ways to find out what they could about the city.

"Mawat always did like the sound of his own voice," said a voice behind her. Siri turned. A man about Obi-Wan's age stood behind her. He had cropped brown hair and dark brown eyes, and wore a brown cloak, as well as other earth tones. He was about the size of a clonetrooper.

"Hi, I'm Siri," said Siri softly.

"Nield. I take it you didn't like his speech?" he asked. Siri nodded. That man was _definitely_ off his speeder. "So, are you a supporter of the Republic then?" Nield asked again. Siri hesitated. If she said "yes" she could be arrested on this planet. Nield could be trying to trick her. She mentally kicked herself. She was a Jedi. What could happen?

"Yes, I'm a supporter of the Republic," she whispered, and Nield nodded. He gestured for her to follow him. He led her down an alleyway, through street markets where one rather pushy gentleman tried to get her to buy some fish. She shoved him away. Nield led her to a grate, and with some effort, pulled it open. He looked around. No one was there but them. Satisfied, he dropped himself into the grate, and gestured for her to follow. Her Force senses tingling, she jumped down. As she hit the mucky water, she found herself in a dark pipe.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"Pipes. The Daan expanded these during the civil war. They drove up through these, right under the noses of the Melida. The Daan attacked, and won that battle." He sighed. "The fighting didn't stop for many more years. Not until the Young intervened. We lived down here, worked and scrapped down here. It was a very sad living, but still, it was better than on the surface."

"We?"

"I helped lead the Young. Cerasi, a Melida child, came down here. She was the first," he said, and bit his lip. "She helped me lead them. We never did anything; we just lived down here. Then someone came to help us. The third great leader of the Young. The Jedi Knight, Obi-Wan Kenobi. He and his master were here to rescue another Jedi. Well, Obi-Wan got caught up in our cause to stop the fighting, and he joined us, against his master's wishes. He helped us destroy the storehouses, and he even used the starfighter that they had come here in to disable the defenses of the Melida and Daan cities."

"Wow," said Siri, stifling a yawn.

"The Elders, the Melida and Daan, found out that their own children were destroying war resources. They started a war against us. Can you believe that? Anyways, Obi-Wan left the Jedi to help us. We won the war, with Obi-Wan's help, again, and we started a new government. I thought are main goal was to destroy the huge Houses of the Dead, or burial grounds that plagued our planet. Cerasi disagreed. She thought we should feed and house people first. Well, the government broke apart, and what's more, the Elders rose up again, with stolen weapons. There was going to be another battle, but Cerasi jumped between the two sides and got shot." He sniffed, almost crying, and continued. "I blamed Wehutti, and he blamed me. I shut out Obi-Wan, saying that he was supposed to be watching her. Our friendship disintegrated. He became an outsider to us. Apparently, he called for help from his old master, and they unraveled what happened. It had been Mawat who had shot Cerasi. Obi-Wan went to look for me to tell me, and he found me at Cerasi's grave. I attacked him, but he explained to me that Mawat was trying to overthrow me."

Another "wow" from Siri trying to sound interested. She already knew what happened.

"So, we fought Mawat in one last battle. We both stopped fighting when we heard a recording of Cerasi. That stopped us both. You're not from around here, are you?"

"Um, no. You sounded like a historian. No offense."

"None taken. It is kind of boring to sum it up, but we don't have a lot of time. This way please," he said, and kept walking. Soon, they neared a green iridescence. She realized that it was some sort of lamp. _"Ah…a secret meeting,"_ she thought, and almost laughed aloud. How cliché.

"Guys, I have another supporter," he said. She saw some shapes appearing from the shadows. She realized almost too late that these shapes were battle droids.


	8. Chapter Seven

**Chapter Seven**

"You tricked me!" she screeched, and reached for her lightsaber. It's violet light filled the chamber. Somehow, she felt that before she had died, she wouldn't have been led into such a trap. Which was, of course, absurd, because she was exactly the same. Even so, she mentally kicked herself for not even at least thinking of using her electronic contacts.

"I have no idea what's going on here!" he said, and reached for a blaster at his thigh. "Fine, she said, and leaped at the nearest battle droid. She halved it, and deflected a blaster bolt into another droid. She spun, and cut off the head of a third. _"Three down…um…six to go," _she thought. She saw Nield shoot down two battle droids. Maybe he wasn't lying. She used the Force to push down one, and stabbed another through the chest. Nield brought down another, but the last one shot a laser straight at Nield. It hit him square in the shoulder. Siri threw her lightsaber into the last one, and ran over to Nield.

"Are you all right?" she asked, all the while unfolding a bacta patch that was in her belt medpac. She stuck it to his shoulder, and he winced. "Yeah, I'm fine, I've gotten worse," Nield said through clenched teeth. "Why didn't you tell me you were a Jedi?" he asked. "On a Separatist world? Do you think I'm stupid?" she asked.

"No…"

"Good," she said flatly. "Now, where were you taking me?"

"To see some people who are starting a small rebellion."

"There's something with you guys and rebellions, isn't there?" Siri asked, and laughed. He nodded sullenly. "Maybe we should look for them," she said, and Nield nodded, and stuck the bacta patch under his clothing and on his wound. She called her still-ignited lightsaber to her, and searched for any sign of a body. She found one. "Nield, over here!" she called, and he ran over to her. He sighed. "Hetten. He was the youngest of the group. I think we should look for survivors, not the dead," Nield said quietly, and she nodded. She stretched out with the Force, and searched through the cavern. She found three life forces, other than hers and Nield's. "Nield, three!" she said, and pointed out where each one was. Nield identified them as Roenni, Deila, and Rica. They administered first aid, and let each of them sleep.

One of the commandos, "Ron", or CT-87/456 (his number), trudged through the streets, his muscular body sometimes hitting pedestrians. He nodded at them and muttered a "sorry". Ron had three years of experience, even serving in the attack on Kamino, his homeworld. He had gone undercover before, but he still preferred to be in his armor, lugging around a big gun, and a bunch of grenades. There was a reason that Ron was the explosives expert of the Special Operations team. Ron loved explosions, ever since he was hatched. His personality, a thing that not a whole lot of clonetroopers had, was like his liking of explosions as well. Ron liked to surprise people, and he was dramatic, at least, for a clonetrooper. Ron was happiest either joking around, or blowing something up. He shook his head. He didn't feel safe with the little p-shooter he had. _"Oh well, get over it,"_ he thought, and plodded on.

Clonetrooper personality was a rare thing. Clonetroopers were mostly all alike. They could experience humor, delight, and normal human emotions, but not with the same things. Clonetroopers were simple creatures, in a sense. They were bred purely for war, and personality was very limited.

However, in processing so many vast amounts of DNA, there were bound to be flukes. Adaptations. Mutations.

A bacterium adapts to its surroundings. It evolves to fit the standards needed by its environment. These adaptations make a single bacterium unlike all the other bacteria of the species. Eventually other bacteria adapt the same way, and more, and more. New bacteria are born with this new adaptation. Life is a constant state of adaptation.

The same way, the DNA of the clonetroopers changes.

Most of the DNA of the clonetroopers is exactly alike to another. But sometimes, the DNA adapts slightly, and differences occur in personality, dependency, learning ability. These accidental personality changes are different from Advanced Recon Commando's personalities, in that ARCs are more controlled, and there are fewer ARCs. These "accidents" are given special attention by Kaminoans. They are given special training, a little more genetic manipulation, and named commandos. These commandos number 1 commando to 1000 regular troopers, meaning there were about 1,200 commandos. The commandos were given special operations missions, and were given commands of platoons and armies where Jedi were not in command. These "flukes", though not as good as ARC troopers, had proved themselves hundreds of times over.

He soon came to an abandoned meetinghouse, which looked like it had been bombed, shot at and knifed numerous times. It looked shady, so of course, Ron walked in, stealthily, so as not to make a noise. He tiptoed down the hallway, sticking with the shadows. He drew his blaster out, and turned it on the highest setting he could have it go, without letting it hum.

_"No guards…" _he thought, and then realized, that there might not be a reason to. It could just be an old building. Nothing corrupt about it.

Then he heard voices. Droid voices.

It was the high-pitched, throaty, annoying voice of a Super battle droid. These battle droids were larger than the original, had blue armor plating, and guns built into the hands. Fortunately, they were still as dumb as rocks. He strode toward them with confidence.

"I'm here for the meeting tonight," he said, almost laughing. The battle droid nodded it's body, seeing as how Super battle droids had heads built into the body. "Walk right on in, down the hall, fourth door on the left."

"Thank you," Ron said, almost cackling with delight. _"One-hundred percent…" _he thought, which of course meant "perfect." How easy was that? Then he heard the metallic voice again. "What a minute…" he heard, and Ron swore. He spun around, pulled his gun out, and blew two holes each in the two battle droids ease.

Maybe it wasn't such a p-shooter after all.

Ron continued on, using stealth, his footfalls silent, his breathing a whisper. His eyes darted around, registering anything. He listened intently to the darkness, searching for any sign of other Separatists.

There was nothing.

_"What is this?" _he thought. His eyes narrowed as he continued forward, his blaster ready. Finally, his efforts paid off.

He heard voices down the hallway.

He stealthily paced down the hallway, towards the source of the noise. He came to an open doorway. He peered around the corner, and saw, standing in the middle of the room, General Grievous.

Grievous was a sight to see. A huge cyborg, he was part life, part droid, all mean.

Grievous was also a master lightsaber duelist. He carried four lightsabers around in a cloak, all prizes he had one in combat with Jedi. Rumor had it that Count Dooku himself had trained him.

Ron decided it was against his better judgment to attack him now, especially with his tiny p-shooter.

"As you all know, we now have a Republic threat in the system. In fact, the Republic has already attacked us, destroying the progress we have made in our shipyards," he said, coughing just about every four words. "They have already landed on Melida/Daan, with about one hundred troops dropped from an airship. They destroyed five battalions of trooper droids."

"Oh no, what are we to do?" Ron heard a Neimoidian general say. He'd always thought that Neimoidians sounded weird.

"I've moved a spider droid battalion accompanied with artillery weapons around the Zehava Canyon. They will soon engage the clones."

"But sir, will that be enough?"

"I've also dispatched bombers to clear up anything left."

Ron swore. Rather loudly. Not loud enough for the Neimoidian to detect, but just enough for the cyborg to hear it. Ron mentally kicked himself. A complete loss of training there.

He heard the servomotors of the huge half-alien, half-droid clicking as he walked toward Ron. Ron already knew he was dead. There was no way that he could outrun a cyborg that large.

An idea came to him. An explosive one.

Grievous was moving rather slowly, perhaps in fear of a trap. That gave Ron just enough time to overload the power cell on his small blaster. He heard it cell whine, and the overheat alert started beeping.. The handle turned red with heat, and he had to grab the barrel. Grievous heard the whine and the beeping as well, because he started backing off. When the handle had turned white, and started disintegrating, Ron threw the blaster into the room.

The Tibanna gas power cell exploded on contact with a table, exploding outward and upwards, melting the middle of the table, and the shockwave of the explosion knocking down General Grievous, and burning the Neimoidian general.

Ron, however, saw none of this, as he was already sprinting away from the building, warning General Tachi of the danger the troops were in.

Acting Captain CT 1159/765 was readying his troops, drilling them as they had been drilled so many times before. With General Tachi gone, as well as the Spec Ops team, he had been put in charge of the camp. The base was in good order, with twenty prefab shelters, comfortably housing five clonetroopers, and a large 'fresher. It had a large command center, with a built in war center, with holo displays and scanners galore.

Light walls surrounded the base, about three feet high, for the troopers to shoot over, without a high chance of the troops getting shot. There were also twelve turrets on treads.

A very good base.

Captain 1159/765, code-named "Alpha" or "Captain Alpha" for now, looked through his macrobinoculars from the command center at the surround. Macrobinoculars were similar to electrobinoculars in appearance, but macrobinoculars did not allow one to see in as many spectrums as electrobinoculars could. Macrobinoculars only allowed normal viewing, and night-vision viewing.

Now, he needed neither to see the large battalion of spider droids approaching his camp. About as tall as a clonetrooper, and as wide as one if the clone lay down, spider droids were essentially pods, with four legs, and two red eyes and a cannon sprouting from the pod. They were armored, but most clone weapons could penetrate the armor.

From the looks of it, there were also a few artillery.

"Platoons A, B, C, and D, form up to the west wall! AT-AP's and their pilots will join them!" he shouted down at the training troops. "Platoon E will work the turrets, repair equipment, and work as medics. Understood!"

He heard five platoon-leaders echo in response.

He'd been part of platoon E, leaving them a member short. His second-in-command had been from B, leaving them a member short. So, they had seventy-nine at the wall, and nineteen operating turrets, and working as engineers and medics. Not a bad set-up.

The artilleries were already in place, and their large cannons were pointing towards sky. A shot would come any second now, any second…

A large boom echoed across the field, and a large, neon-red object flew through the sky. The shell was huge, easily the size of two clonetroopers.

It hit the base with a devastating explosion, blowing apart three prefab shelters and sending eight clonetroopers flying in the air. They hit the ground with eight sickening thuds.

Three more shells were already on their way.

Alpha shook his head. "Fire the turrets!" The laser cannons starting blasting away at the artilleries, and one blew apart. But the three others were still firing. The spider droids started advancing, and the clonetroopers were already firing. The occasional clone would cry out, but the artillery was doing most of the damage. The seven clones in platoon E that weren't firing the turrets were running back and forth to each wounded soldier.

The spider droids were dropping in droves. The DC-15 rifles did their jobs well. It looked like they'd survive the day.

Alpha heard a low whine coming from behind him.

He looked behind him, and saw twenty Confederate bombers and their fighter escorts already on top of the base. "Bombers, east!" he yelled, and those clonetroopers with shoulder-mounted rocket launchers swivel on their toes, and start firing on the bombers. The fighters swooped down, and started to shoot the rocketers.

Some of the rockets hit the bombers, but they appeared to have been modified, because normal bombers would have exploded on contact. These were hardly dented. Alpha almost swore, but it went against his training.

By now, the spider droids had arrived. They were blowing right through the light walls, and wreaking havoc with the base. The turrets and guns of the clones were firing nonstop. He even saw a few clonetroopers using their rifles as clubs. Closer examination showed him that the barrels of the guns had been melted shut from too much continuous fire. Alpha and his assistant started firing their small repeater blasters.

The bombers started dropping their payloads, and fire and explosions racked the base, and shattered computer screens in the command center. The holo-display of the area showed reds swarming all over the base. Clonetroopers were dying in groups. The artillery shells were blowing through prefab shelters, shredding and tearing metal, melting plasteel, and ripping through clone flesh.

Captain Alpha walked over to the comm unit to call for reinforcements, but, of course, communications were jammed. Alpha should have seen it coming. It was just too easy to not have been spotted by some scout party…

The repeated bombings crossed over the command center. The command center melted and burst into flames as five bombs dropped on it simultaneously. Alpha dropped from the command center, his assistant following suit.

Alpha shot the leg off of a spider droid, and climbed up on top of it, and placed a grenade on the top of it. Obviously, it went up in flames.

A bomb dropped right behind him, and he flew into the air. The heat seared his back, and he fell right into the rubble of a prefab shelter.

Right onto a broken pipe.

The pipe had been part of the 'fresher system, and had broken in half when it had been bombed. Alpha was impaled right through the abdomen, through the armor. His eyes bulged, and he threw up blood, and it collected in his helmet, flooding his vision. The pain made him spasm, and his abdomen contracted, hurting him further. His hands were shaking almost uncontrollably when he removed his helmet, and blood spilled to the ground. He breathed raggedly. He forced himself onto his back, and saw the bombers make another pass. He barely heard the three artilleries make three more shots.

His brothers were dying everywhere. Blood soaked the green and brown earth. The gray sky looked so peaceful, such contrast…

He hardly noticed the enormous glob of artillery energy as it engulfed his body.


	9. Chapter Eight

**Chapter Eight**

"We were just sitting around the table, discussing a few matters, like how federal funds had suddenly started disappearing. And I mean, they weren't even disappearing to the war effort. Force knows, we've lost enough funds to building warships and starfighters. No, I mean disappearing," said Deila, a pretty woman of about thirty. With short brown hair, and piercing green eyes, she could be very intimidating. "Another thing, the Prime Deputy has recently been purchasing new things for him and wife. As far as I know, the taxes he gets don't nearly cover the costs of that…"

Roenni, smaller, with sandy-blonde, wavy hair down to her shoulders, looked very upset about the whole thing. She was still very weak. She had been hurt the most.

"Anyways," she continued, "we saw a blaster bolt come out of nowhere, and Michen, one of the newer members, well, his head gone blown to pieces."

Siri winced at how easily Deila told the tale. But, she had seen, been through, and participated in numerous bloody wars. She was used to it.

"So we all get up from the table, and I pull out the blaster I always had. Yeah, I know, it's illegal for everyone but military, but still. Never know when I might need it. We see some droids coming out the shadows, and start blasting us. Roenni and I get shot in the arm, and the rest go down like that."

Roenni and Rica nodded solemnly as they listened to the tale. Roenni was even crying a little bit.

Siri's comlink beeped. "Excuse me," she said, and walked off to the corner of the room. "Yes?" she spoke into her comlink.

"CT-87/456, checking in, sir," said the commando through ragged breaths. He sounded as if he was running. "I…have…located General…Grievous."

"Excellent work, commando. Now report back to-"

"The base? General…there might not be a base by the time I get there."

"Speak plainly, Ron."

"General…Grievous has…sent an army…to destroy…the base."

Siri almost dropped her comlink. She swore in her head. "I'll signal the others. You keep yourself alive, commando. Understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good, and, um, commando?"

"Yes?"

"How long have you been running?" she asked, a little bit worried.

"Fifteen minutes sprinting, sir," he replied, almost amused. He _was_ in peak condition.

"Carry on, trooper."

"One-hundred percent," she heard, and the signal cut off. She bit her lip, thinking. Yeah, she'd better go to the base. She called the other three Spec. Ops. troopers, and told them her coordinates. She told them to get their butts down here, on the double. They were there in a span of ten minutes.

She didn't bother with introductions. The three clonetroopers didn't seem to scare the others in the least bit. "Do you have a transport?" she asked Nield.

Nield flashed a bright smile, and led them through a network of tunnels. Finally they reached a large, bus-sized vehicle that looked slightly like a mole.

Nield motioned for everyone to pile in, and he went up the driver's side. He palmed in, and Siri heard the craft rumble, and she smelled something…

"Oh, Force. This thing's gas-powered, isn't it?"

"Well, it's a hybrid. Natural gas and hydrogen. It just so happens that Melida/Daan is ripe with both."

"Great…you know gas explodes right?"

Nield just smiled.

The noisy hybrid engine prohibited too much chatting on their voyage through the tunnels. However, Nield did ask Siri where they were going, fortunately. The tunnels didn't extend quite so far, so Siri and her troops had to walk a little bit. Nield told Siri that they'd wait in the vehicle.

"We'll bring back some weapons. We've got plenty to spare," told Siri. Nield nodded his thanks, but she saw his reluctance. They still didn't like the thought of bearing arms again. Well, they'd get over it, if they had to.

They started walking, and Siri feared it might be too late. She saw small plumes of smoke off in the distance. Smoke meant fire. Fire meant destruction. She cursed under her breath.

"Okay, boys, we need to proceed with caution."

They nodded. She closed her eyes, and looked to the left, then up. Her electronic contacts fizzled on, feeding on the energy from her brain. She zoomed in on the plumes of smoke, by changing her depth perception. Unfortunately, she couldn't zoom in very much, so she didn't find out very much else. She repeated what she'd done to turn them on, and they fizzled off.

"All right, let's go."

She crouched low, and started advancing towards the base camp, ducking under large rocks as she went. As they neared the encampment, they could see the small fires that caused the smoke. She saw the bone-white of clonetrooper armor; it was on the ground. There didn't seem to be much moving, except for the hungry tongues of the fires.

She motioned toward the base with her head, and they walked normally into. Shredded metal and body parts were everywhere. She could sense the anger and sadness from the Spec. Ops. troopers at seeing so many of their brothers. She didn't' know what it was like to lose so many loved ones, but she could imagine what it was like…

But then, they were clones? They were all the same, weren't they? Not much loss of individuality? Personality?

Were they different from each other? How much different were they the original?

How different was she from the original? Siri pushed the thought from her mind. No use worrying now.

They went from trooper to trooper, checking vital signs, if they were able to be checked, and analyzing wounds. Most of the troopers had been dropped by large lasers, possibly from droidekas, the shielded terrors of the confederate army, or by spider droids. Maybe even modified Super battle droids? Who knew?

A few had died from explosions, be blown onto sharp edges, some just hit directly with an explosive artillery shot. _"Artillery?"_ she thought. _"Artillery. Nothing else could have shots this big, and bombers drop projectiles."_

The damage done to the buildings was so extensive that they weren't even worth salvaging. There were parts of AT-AP's, the All-Terrain Attack Pods, strewn about. The ARC trooper came over to her and asked if they should bury the bodies, or burn them.

"Neither, soldier. There are too many right now. We don't have time. I'll send down a squad to salvage what we can, and burn the bodies."

Soon afterward she made the comlink call.

CT-754/629, the ARC Trooper, also known as "Johnny" looked down at his fallen brothers with sadness beyond the comprehension of non-cloned beings.

The civilians thought of the clonetroopers as invincible beings, almost as machine as the Confederate troops. It wasn't fair. Sure, they were trained overmuch, they were genetically manipulated, and grown in little vats by the thousands, but did that really make them any less human? The soul was still there! And they were all different! Each clone's experiences made them different!

Which is why it made it even sadder when a brother fell. Clonetroopers had this connection with their brothers unlike any other sentient being could understand. They were grown together, always together. Thousands of them together, all the time. Parting was hard, but it was for the good of the Grand Army of the Republic.

But parting by death was hard. Civilians wouldn't understand why, or how, clones could mourn their brothers. But they did, all the same.

The other two commandos were already picking up guns, ammunition, and supplies and putting them on their back. Johnny followed suit, picking up three DC-15 rifles and shouldering them, a few grenades, a pair of macrobinoculars, and a survival pack filled with rations.

He jogged over the general.

"What are we gonna do about the bodies? Bury them, or burn them?"

Either way, a clonetrooper would be honored to have died in battle. It was what they were bred to do. Die so that the civilians can live. But still, sadness was common when clones died.

"Neither, soldier. There are too many right now. We don't have time. I'll send down a squad to salvage what we can, and burn the bodies."

He nodded. She was reasonable. He kind of liked her. She was hard, military-type. Not like most of the Jedi he'd heard of. They always seemed to be philosophical weaklings. Nothing philosophical about this chick. She was all action.

And the action she'd done was amazing. He'd never seen such lightsaber mastery. But then, he hadn't seen many lightsabers. Twice now. The first time being when he was taking part in a siege of a base on some jungle world. He'd infiltrated the base, only to find a Dark Side adept staring at him.

That guy shouldn't even have been called adept. More like, rookie. _Civilian_, even. It was sad. Johnny had taken him down in a little over a minute.

Johnny trotted over to the other two commandos. "Report over to the general, on the double."

They all ran over to her. "Orders, ma'am?" asked Johnny. "Well, I don't want to send down more troops, too risky. We don't know how much of a military they have here," she said thoughtfully. "I think we need to get back with the resistance. They'll know they didn't get everyone. They'll be back. We _need _to protect them.

"Gentlemen, this battle will not be won with military brutality. Too many unknowns. This calls for finesse, we need to flush our enemy out from within. How would you pick a rootwarter out of its hole?"

"Rootwarter, ma'am?" asked on of the troopers.

"A rootwarter, it's a creature that digs holes in the ground and eats the roots of plants. It has sharp teeth and claws, usually infectious. Well, anyways, you wouldn't reach into the hole and just pluck it out, too dangerous. What you do is you send a robotic digger in underneath it, to flush it out.

"The Confederacy is our rootwarter. Time to flush it out."

"How'd everything go?" asked Nield as they jumped down from the tunnel opening. The soldiers put the supplies and armaments in the back of the vehicle.

"It was…eventful," said Siri flatly. How could she have been so _stupid _! She'd only brought down one hundred troops; she knew they couldn't stand up to something like that. So, why'd she do it? Was she just not thinking clearly?

Did it have something to do with her clone brain? What if…

"Eventful…" said Nield, breaking into her thoughts. Siri hung her head. "The base is, destroyed, completely. Not a one is alive. We could only salvage what we found. The boys I had sent down will have to do the rest."

Nield looked awe-stricken. He apparently had never heard of any Republic defeats. Not surprising. Not surprising. The holo-net was full of propaganda, all for the Republic. Palpatine had such control over the holo-net…

Wait. She stopped dead in her thoughts. If Palpatine had control over the holo-net, then why were the news discrediting the Jedi? Weren't they allies? The news just wanted a good story. But if Palpatine had seen it, surely he would have stopped the story from going on the air.

Disturbing.

_"Psh, stop being paranoid,"_ thought Siri. He just hadn't seen it. I'm sure he'd been outraged. Of course he had…

"That's…not good news," he said flatly. It was just them up in the cockpit area, so the other resistance leaders didn't hear them. No need to alarm them. They'd probably already asked the clones though.

"Nield, we need to get inside of government headquarters. We have to question your Prime Deputy. Ask him where he's getting this money…"

"Oh, that's not a problem. We can get you into the building. We'll go two nights from now."

"And in other news," said the main news reporter of the Zehava Nightly News, "the new bill has passed in the Melida/Daan senate. Melida/Daan and the surrounding sector now _officially_ belong to the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Support teams from the nearest Confederate systems have been dispatched, and will be arriving soon. They are carrying droids, war supplies, and materials to be used in getting started with war factories and new shipyards.

"Also, government buildings are now being guarded by multiple squads of battle droids, armed to kill. Prime Deputy of Melida/Daan Perantha was assigning the battle droids to their posts. The government purchased them, actually. Perantha said today in addressing the people of Zehava that a military general will be arriving on Melida/Daan to use it as a forward base to push towards the Core. It was received with thunderous applause, and cheers.

"Now, for the newly arrived agricultural…"

Siri and Nield just sat there on the couch in front of the holo-viewer, staring. "This complicates things. How are we gonna get into the building to question Perantha?" asked Nield.

"Shouldn't be too hard. We'll just have to sneak past the droids."

"What about the convoy of ships? They'll be carrying supplies and tons of war droids. What'll we do about _that_!"

"Don't worry about it."

"You know, I never did ask you where you came from, what you're doing here, or how you got here…"

"I'm not at liberty to say."

"Then I'm not going to help you."

"Oh, c'mon Nield."

"I make it a point to not trusting _anyone_ who withholds information. I did that once, and I lost the person most important to me. I'm not gonna do it again."

Siri stared at him defiantly for a tenuous few seconds. She finally gave in. Who was she to deny him an explanation? It couldn't hurt, I mean, they _were_ allies…

"Okay, here it is. I'm on a mission from the Jedi Council to find and destroy General Grievous. They gave me a fleet of ships."

"So why don't you just bombard Confederate bases?" he asked, obviously not thinking of all the bloodshed the planet had already seen. "Believe me, I would have leveled every city because you'd gone Separatist. But that's not what the Republic stand for. What the _Jedi_ stand for."

"Mmm…" he said.

"I don't want anymore bloodshed for this planet. Which is why I'm not sending down more troops, or starting some sort of revolt. I want this operation small. Hence, the Specs Ops troops."

"One thing though: Grievous isn't here."

"Well, even if he isn't, I want this planet safe, and free. The Republic will not give up on this planet."

Nield just nodded.

_Those eyes…staring her down. "You!" she said. "Yes, me!" the man said. He looked so evil, his face was wrinkled, his eyes yellowed, he looked like a lifetime drinker on deathsticks. The lances of energy drove into her body, stinging her, sucking life…_

_She screamed, an unearthly, bloody scream._

_Bodies of her colleagues surrounded her. Why! _Why!_ Heads were on the ground, mouths wide open, eyes staring into space. Lightsaber cuts. But bloody. Lightsaber wounds were never bloody…_

_The flaps of flesh and bits of veins and ligaments from the severed heads littered the floor, along with parts and wholes of organs. She crawled backwards on all fours, and accidentally stepped on a liver. She picked it up, and saw her face in the sheen of its moisture. _

_Her face was a network of bloody streaks, and there was a large cut running through her lips. She looked down at her hands, and they were shriveled and covered in liver spots. She looked in the liver again, and saw that she was aging, horribly._

_Suddenly, _he _dropped from the ceiling. His lightsaber glowing blue, he stood between her and that evil…_

_Then, in the blink of an eye, he turned on her, lightsaber raised high. His eyes were red with an evil fire._

_The scenery changed again. Suddenly she was in the midst of an immense jungle. She was young again, and none of the cuts on her face where there. _

_She advanced forward, making her way towards a clearing. When she got to it, she saw hundreds of large black creatures hauling stones up and down a ramp, building what looked like an enormous pyramid. There was someone on top of the pyramid, with black hair that was flailing in the wind. He looked down at her, with the same-yellowed eyes as the man before…_

_He pointed at her._

_The black creatures stopped their work, and steadily walked towards her. She reached for her lightsaber, but it wasn't there. _

_They pounced on her, talking in an unutterable language that sounded evil and demonic. She heard the words "dark side" from one of them._

_The creatures, she found out, had claws, and some sort of blades on their arms. She never got the chance to examine them further, however, and her body was mangled and sliced in seconds. _

_She felt herself being lifted into the air, and she looked down, and saw that her mangled, bloody body was being devoured by the strange creatures. She still felt their claws, teeth, and blades ripping and tearing at her flesh…_

_The pain…_

_Blackness enveloped her._

_"It's over. I have _won_!" she heard. What was that? Who, why…_

_The darkness entered her body though her mouth, and consumed her. Her eyes turned black, as her soul was consumed, she thought one thing:_

_"I love you, Obi-Wan…"_

Siri awoke, sweating pouring from body. Nield and his followers had taken them to the shelter, in the catacombs, that they had built for themselves. It was actually quite homely. They had given them cots, and the clones and her shared quarters. There was a common shower room. She checked the chrono on the wall: 4:00 MCT, or 4:00 in the morning, Coruscant time. Siri looked down at her light tunic, drenched with sweat, and sticking to her body.

Siri decided to take a shower. It'd be nice to keep her pores from becoming acne-ridden.

When she got to the washroom, she realized that the tunic was so wet, she could see right through it. She' d heard of the wet tunic contests that some clubs held on weekends, and she absolutely despised them. Disgusting.

She imagined this is about what it looked like. She rolled her eyes, closed the door, and stripped down. Putting her soaking tunic in the dryer, she walked into the step-in shower.

She turned it on just below as hot as it could go. She liked the steam. Facing her head towards the rushing water, she closed her eyes, and thought about the dream she'd had. It was certainly different. She hadn't had nightmares since she was little. Why so much death?

It was so…gruesome. Worse than war. At least laser pellets and lightsaber left cauterized wounds. It reminded her of primitive warfare, where attackers would use swords, or even projectile weapons, often spewing their opponents' body fluids all over the place. So uncivilized.

What was that jungle world? She'd never even heard of a race of black lizard-like people. It seemed so violent.

And then the blackness…the utter blackness. It gave her shudders. It felt so _evil_. The hair on her neck stood on end when she only _thought _about it!

There was no way this dream could ever be a premonition. Some Jedi saw the future, like Yoda, but as he said so often, the future as fluid. No one can truly predict the future. The dream had to be a figment of her imagination, and random arrangement of images and memories her brain brought up to organize itself. Dreams were random energy, nothing more.

Then why had it felt so real? It had felt as real as the water pouring down her body, the cleaning solution she was running through her fingers, and the steam all around her. The pain she'd felt was real. The emotions she'd felt were real—the despair, the uncertainty and confusion!

The love.

"What love?" she said aloud. There was no love for…him. Or was there? They were supposed to be friends. Then why had she been so upset when he doubted her abilities? With _anyone_ else, she would have just brushed it off. But…with Obi-Wan…

She tried to the think back to the time when they had been friends. That private conversation that signified them as best friends, and not lovers. As she scanned her memories, she found only that same wall. She grew frustrated, but didn't hit with the force. Rather, she nudged it in select places, trying to weaken the structure of the inhibiter.

It crumbled like the walls of Jericho.

She glimpsed the conversation, the ideal of their friendship before her death. She saw those twenty years of silence, the ignorance of each other. How that had hurt them both. She saw that mission where they had rejoined forces, and became best friends, not lovers. Lovers just got in the way, didn't it? There was not room for love in the Jedi Order.

As soon as she had seen the memory, her world peeled back, and everything became black.

Siri awoke in a nice, large bed, dazed and confused. She gave a yawn, and stretched. What had happened?

It all came rushing back to her. Everything. Everything from the dream, to the shower, to the recollection of the memories she'd lost. She and Obi-Wan had been friends. There was a time when they were just friends. Nothing more, nothing less.

Was that was she wanted?

The more Siri thought about it, the more confusing it became for her to understand the way she felt about Obi-Wan. Before, she'd always had memories of her in Obi-Wan's strong arms, or when he was bent over her broken body, weeping, his tears falling in her mouth. _Oh, Obi-Wan…_

Now that she had those few memories back, she felt even more confused. What were they, really, friends, or lovers?

They had decided to be friends on the same mission where she died, but they were lovers when they parted. What _did _that make them?

No use trying to figure it out on her own. This concerned Obi-Wan too, so she'd have to speak with him about it. She started getting up, but she soon realized that she was rather naked. Not even her inner tunic. _"Jeese, where am I?" _she thought. She hadn't even thought of how she got there. She only remembered she'd passed out in the shower, after breaking that wall…

She found a robe hanging on the wall, and slipped it on, and walked out into the corridor. The shelter they'd fixed up had been small, but it was roomy enough for all seven of them. Deila was on her way to the living room, when she saw Siri exit from the room. "Oh, good morning sunshine," she said, and smiled.

"Uh, good morning," said Siri, still a little disoriented. "Do you know what…"

"Roenni was on her way to shower for the morning; she gets up really early, see. She's always done things like that. Early to bed, early to rise, even when she was little and down here with the Young. Well, she hears the shower, and she knocks. When she doesn't hear anything, she opened the door; you hadn't locked it."

"Oh, oops."

"Well, it's a good thing you didn't, because she saw you in the shower, plopped right on the ground. Well, she got me, and we put you in that room right there. We save it for emergencies."

"Ah. Why was I, er, naked?" asked Siri, just a little on edge. Deila laughed. "Because for some reason, you put some really sweaty clothes in the dryer, but didn't turn it on, so…you must not have been thinking straight, huh?"

"Uh, no, I guess I wasn't."

They soon started preparing for their operation. The plan went like this: they would infiltrate the capital building, the clones providing an appropriate distraction for them to get inside. From there, they would work their way up to the Prime Deputy's office, which was heavily guarded and would be very hard to get to.

There, Siri would use a very uncommon method for a Jedi: intimidation. The Council would kill her if they found out what was going to take place, but it had to be done. Once they got the information out of him, they would stun him, throw him in a closet, and go public with the evidence.

What exactly was the evidence? If one looked at it logically, then the evidence was that the Prime Deputy was on the payroll of the Confederacy. That would get the public hyped up.

The suited up in dark clothing, except for the clones. They were dressed in blast-proof brown armor. They'd have the most dangerous job. Hopefully, the enemy would just take them as common terrorists. But then, there wasn't really anything common about terror. The Confederacy should definitely know that…


	10. Chapter Nine

**Chapter Nine**

Johnny slowly approached the side of the building. It was a large building, and rather heavily guarded, but it was feeble compared to the skills of an ARC Trooper. The missing trooper, Ron, had been instructed to meet up with him on the east side. Through his heat-vision visor, Johnny could see that Ron was there, and seemingly none worse for the wear. Johnny stealthily sneaked up to him, and silently tossed him a heat-vision visor and a small repeating blaster carbine. He nodded in thanks.

They slowly approached the guards, who were witless as ever. Droids were so dumb. Johnny used a vibroblade and snuck up behind them, cutting out the battle droids' control box. There was a slight flash from the spark of the electronics, but that was inevitable. At least it was a bright red bolt of energy making a small sonic boom.

Ron screwed the flash suppressor onto his carbine. This would make it so that there would be no large flash, just the sound and a small red laser. He fired at the guards patrolling the balcony.

The front portal opened, and a battalion of troops flooded out.

They had been noticed.

Johnny already had the repeating cannon fixed into place, and was firing it nonstop, making the barrel glow with heat. Droid after droid fell down, but there were a lot more.

Ron took out a proton grenade, pushed the activator, and quickly threw it at the center of the droids. It exploded, melting circuits and metal, and blowing stray parts all over the place. If the all of the droids hadn't noticed that they were under attack by now, their deductive reasoning programming was faulty.

Droids poured out of the building. Good. The ARC and the commando were achieving the objective.

Siri and Roenni snuck through the entrance on the right side. The droids were preoccupied at the front and back ends of the building. There should be nothing to dodge, except for a few primitive defense systems. The building's main defense was the droids.

Roenni slid an ID card through the scanner. It was faked of course. The door slid open.

Siri's lightsaber was up and blazing as soon as she saw the tan color of droids. These two, apparently, had been stragglers. Now, all they were was spare parts. Siri flashed Roenni a smile, and put her lightsaber away. Roenni was a safe distance away from her lightsaber. They'd always scared her. "Sorry," Siri said, pulling out a blaster. She was just as good with that as she was with her lightsaber.

Roenni nodded in the direction they were headed. It ended in a turbolift, going fifteen stories up. Siri knew that this was a little bit too easy…


End file.
